Finsterau 2017: Biathlon Sprint!

Saturday was the final day of action for the biathletes at the World Championships in Finsterau. The last day saw the biathlon sprint races take place and some familiar names on the podium.

In the women’s standing race Ukraine’s Liudmyla Liashenko matched her gold medal from the Individual by winning the Sprint title shooting clean. Defending world champion Oleksandra Kononova took silver and Ukraine made it a 1-2-3 with Iryna Bui taking the bronze.

The men’s title in the standing went to Canada’s Mark Arendz. He won by just 2 seconds from another Ukrainian Ihor Reptyukh with France’s Benjamin Daviet getting bronze.

The Ukrainians enjoyed even more success in the visually impaired events as Oksana Shyshkova with guide Vitalii Kazakov beat Germany’s Clara Klug guided by Martin Hartl. Ukraine’s Olga Prylutska with guide Volodymyr Ivanov took another bronze to add to Ukraine’s massive medal haul.

Anatolii Kovalevskyi guided by Oleksandr Mukshyn added another gold in the men’s race. Belarus’ Vasili Shaptsiaboi and guide Mikhail Lebedzeu won the silver and France’s Anthony Chalencon with guide Simon Valverde got the bronze in what was his first ever podium in biathlon.

The USA’s Oksana Masters won the women’s sitting race despite missing 2 targets. Anja Wicker was second taking another medal for the hosts and Belarusian Lidzyia Hrafeyeva grabbed the bronze.

More gold for Ukraine came from Maksym Yarovyi who won ahead of teammate Taras Rad in the men’s sitting. Germany’s Martin Fleig added a bronze to his two gold medals meaning he won a medal in every biathlon race at his home World Championships.

It has been a really good World Championships with Ukraine as the dominant team. However it was also successful for the home team Germany which always helps to make the event enjoyable for the crowd.